Office chairs conventionally provide for rearward vertical tilting of the seat and back relative to the chair base, with the seat/back typically being urged by springs into a normal upright position wherein the seat extends approximately horizontal or is slanted rearwardly at a small angle. In such chairs, a tilt control mechanism typically permits the occupant to push against the back to cause rearward titling of the back and/or seat against the urging of the spring. Chairs having such construction are conventional, and have been utilized in offices and other environments for many years.
This invention relates to a chair of the general type described above, but which additionally includes a forward tilt control to enable the chair seat to be tilted forwardly from its normal approximately horizontal position. That is, by suitable adjustment of a mechanism which cooperates between the base and a part of the chair seat, the chair seat can be vertically tilted so that the front edge thereof is moved downwardly to cause the chair seat to assume a forwardly declining relationship relative to the floor. The mechanism permits such forward decline to be individually selected over a predetermined range, and lockingly maintains the chair seat in the selected forwardly declined position. When so disposed, the seat/back arrangement still retains its normal rearward tilting capability, which capability is now initiated starting from the selected forward tilt position.